Monday, June 27, 2005

Wal-Mart—A Union Member Perspective

Wal-Mart gets bashed a lot, so I thought that the following letter to the editor in our regional daily newspaper was of interest on the subject.

“I have been a United Food and Commercial Worker for 13 years, and I am tired of my union paper wasting space bashing Wal-Mart. I have a wife who works at Wal-Mart, and I can tell you that they start out at $7, $8, or up to $12 an hour, depending on experience. My union’s starting wage is the minimum wage.

The insurance offered is good at Wal-Mart for employees who work 30 some hours a week; my union offers insurance only to 40-hour-a-week employees.

My wife has worked at two union grocery stores and has not been treated as good as she has at Wal-Mart. She receives profit-sharing checks each year, and stock purchases are something the union stores never offered.

So, quit knocking Wal-Mart; a good majority of people shopping there are union members anyway.